Christian Nationalist Zionists (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

We talk about the Iran war with Mother Jones national correspondent Kiera Butler, author of the article: “Trump’s Holy Warriors Finally Got the Apocalypse They’ve Prayed For.”

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-march-12-2026/

Trump’s Holy Warriors Finally Got the Apocalypse They’ve Prayed For – Mother Jones

Shortly after the first bombs fell in Iran last week, a chorus of prominent Christian Zionists cheered. In a broadcast of the evangelical show "FlashPoint," Lance Wallnau, a Texas-based leader in a rapidly spreading charismatic Christian nationalist movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, declared that the war was evidence that "Jesus is back on the menu." …"Once the first domino falls, the others will fall: the emergence of the Antichrist, the tribulation period, the battle of Armageddon, the second coming, the millennial reign of Christ."…

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/trumps-holy-warriors-finally-got-the-apocalypse-theyve-prayed-for/ 

 

MAGA Catholics, Antisemitism & Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Implosion (Sarah Posner; Reign of Error podcast #005)

On this episode of Reign of Error, investigative journalist Sarah Posner unpacks the implosion of Donald Trump’s White House Religious Liberty Commission after a chaotic hearing at the Museum of the Bible exposed deep fractures inside the MAGA coalition. Former beauty queen and recent Catholic convert Carrie Prejean Boller sparked outrage with antisemitic rhetoric tied to right-wing influencer Candace Owens, igniting a public feud with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and drawing backlash from conservative Catholics and evangelicals alike. Posner and scholar Matthew J. Cressler explore how debates over Zionism, Christian nationalism, and the phrase “Christ is King” reveal a growing split between traditional religious-right leaders and a digitally fueled Catholic far-right operating in Trump’s social media ecosystem.

The conversation traces how figures like Nick Fuentes, Owens, and other MAGA Catholics deploy antisemitic tropes rooted in older Catholic anti-communist and anti-Jewish traditions, now amplified by online platforms and political patronage. From clashes over Vatican teaching and Christian Zionism to tensions with evangelical allies, this episode examines whether the MAGA movement’s Catholic wing is on a collision course with both the broader GOP and the institutional Church. Plus, in this week’s “Anti-Doom,” Posner highlights a federal court ruling restoring a slavery exhibit removed under Trump’s executive order—an important victory in the ongoing fight over American history and truth.

Matthew J. Cressler, Ph.D. is a writer, independent scholar, and chief of staff of the Corporation for Public Interest Technology. He is the author of Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migrations and creator of Bad Catholics, Good Trouble, the educational webcomic series. He’s written for America, The Atlantic, National Catholic Reporter, The Revealer, Slate, U.S. Catholic, and numerous academic journals. He co-reported the Religion News Service series “Beyond the Most Segregated Hour,” which won a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council. He has two forthcoming books under contract: the co-authored Body & Blood: Catholic Horror in America, due out from NYU Press this Halloween, and Catholics and the Making of MAGA: How an Immigrant Church Became America’s Law and Order Faith, which is set to be published by HarperCollins in fall 2027.

• Matthew’s professional website (https://matthewjcressler.com/) 
• Matthew’s webcomic website (https://badcatholics-comics.org/).

Many other resources, and hear the Interview:

https://redcircle.com/shows/fbed712f-0027-40af-a33b-fd9de05efc5c/ep/bd06caf5-4852-4a23-9296-f8ebde964637

 

The Evangelicals Who Think Iran’s Protests Mean Jesus Is Returning – Mother Jones

Broadly speaking—though there are certainly exceptions—many of the most ardent supporters of Trump's decision to bomb Iran identify as Christian Zionists, a group that believes that Israel and the Jewish people will play a key role in bringing about the second coming of the Messiah. As Christians, they are called to hasten this scenario, says Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore and author of The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy. "The mission, so to speak, is to get the Jews back to Israel and to establish themselves within Israel," he says. "Then you fulfill the preconditions, or one of the preconditions, for the second coming."… 

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/the-evangelicals-who-think-irans-protests-mean-jesus-is-returning/ 

 

Tucker Carlson’s Lovefest With a White Nationalist Just Blew Up the Christian Right – Mother Jones

"During his first term, Taylor noted, Trump made strong connections with influential figures in the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, a charismatic Christian movement that teaches followers to take "dominion" over all aspects of society, including government. Over the last decade or so, Christian Zionism has become an important part of NAR theology—so much so that during worship, some adherents now wear Jewish prayer shawls and blow shofars, the ram's horn instruments that ancient Israelites used to call troops to battle and still features in some Jewish holidays. This is an example of what Taylor refers to as philosemitism—the idea of loving Jewish customs and cultures. But within end-times theology lurks a dark side to Christian Zionists' fixation on Judaism. Once the Messiah arrives, many Christian Zionists are convinced that Jews will convert en masse to Christianity; in many versions, those who don't convert will perish."…

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/tucker-carlsons-lovefest-with-a-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-just-blew-up-the-christian-right/ 

 

Evangelical Zionists (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

This episode contains an interview with the author of God’s “Blank Check”: Christian Zionists Are Pouring Billions of Dollars Into Israeli Extremism.

After reporting state/church victories and complaints in California, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Washington, Texas and Arkansas, we speak with Mother Jones national correspondent Kiera Butler about her article, God’s “Blank Check”: Christian Zionists Are Pouring Billions of Dollars Into Israeli Extremism.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-october-23-2025/

God’s “Blank Check”: Christian Zionists Are Pouring Billions of Dollars Into Israeli Extremism (Mother Jones)

For Trump and some key members of his administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, backing Israeli expansion is a divine mandate, even as the international community documents brutality and starvation. The Trump administration now refuses to cooperate with United Nations aid efforts in Gaza, instead creating an alternative group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The project of an evangelical leader, the foundation eschews UN food distribution sites in favor of its own stations in Israeli-controlled areas. As a result, hundreds of aid-seeking Gazans have been killed...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/christian-zionism-evangelicals-israel-trump-foreign-policy/

Meet the Christian Zionists Determined to Elect Trump – Mother Jones

When Trump lost the 2020 election, some of the same NAR pastors who had praised Trump for moving the embassy—including Lance Wallnau, Dutch Sheets, and Paula White-Cain—emerged as leaders in the "Stop the Steal" campaign claiming that the election was stolen. In a 2022 broadcast, Sheets said that Trump had told him in a dream, "'God has put the tools in me to tear down, root up, and confront the system.'" 

Fast forward to October 7, 2023, when NAR pastors' commitment to Israel became an all-out obsession. In a forthcoming paper for the religion studies journal Nova Religio, Berry, the St. Lawrence University religion scholar, chronicles how NAR pastors characterized the war in Gaza as part of "a cosmic battle between God and satanic forces." Berry references a broadcaston Rumble titled "Is This WWIII?" that Wallnau published on October 8, 2023. In it, Wallnau claimed that Hamas' brutal attack on Israel was the result of God punishing the United States for electing Biden, abandoning Trump, and allowing trans people to serve in the military. Because of these transgressions, Wallnau says, the United States has become "spiritually vulnerable."… 

To some NAR adherents, paradoxically, the October 7 attack and all the bloodshed that followed was actually good news. NAR pastor Cindy Jacobs, another leader in the "Stop the Steal" campaign, told the crowd on the Mall that God had warned her about Hamas' attack—but he also told her that "after the dark time, Israel would come into a great revival"—presumably, the prelude to Christ's return…

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/10/christian-zionists-determined-to-elect-trump/